from Neocore, the folks behind the King Arthur games. this one is an action RPG that doesn't star Hugh Jackman.

here's some pre-alpha gameplay. I'm not sure if they're just testing to see how many monsters can be on the screen or if that is going to be the normal amount of enemies to expect. definitely reminiscent of Diablo 3 and Torchlight with the firearms, of course that might not be a bad thing as Titan Quest proved post Diablo 2.

« Last Edit: July 06, 2012, 08:05:30 PM by CeeKay »

Logged

Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

well this is out on Steam, and fairly cheap too. seem to be getting decent impressions on the Steam boards as a fun game, and the secret hunter's lair video shows a tower defense mini game mixed into the action RPG as well:

Quote

The Hunterís Lair will function as a central hub for players to stash collected loot, trade with non-playable characters, accept new quests from allies who join the resistance against the scientific scourge, teleport between locations, utilize the alchemy lab, and opens up the opportunity for a tower-defense mini-game when enemies attempt to raid the lair. Built by the father of the protagonist, the lair comes equipped with a power-generator that permits access to deployable traps and many other upgradable functions to defend hordes of despicable enemies that want to rid the world of Van Helsing.

kind of tempted to jump in myself for $13.50. still, there's a GT review coming, and Hepcat has graciously volunteered to be our guinea pig for this one. so everyone, let's have a nice round of applause for our brave and immaculately coiffed HepC as we gather around to hear his tale

Logged

Because I can,also because I don't care what you want.XBL: OriginalCeeKayWii U: CeeKay

I can't help it. When I see a witch hunter/solomon kane style character in a gothic setting that looks like a Hammer Film, I can't resist. hands down my favorite game setting.

I would like to note I just found out that this is the first chapter in what is supposed to be a three chapter game. they're promising 8 to 10 hours for this first chapter, if that's any help in setting your expectations appropriately.

...and look to ron for a definitive review. he's the one to trust at the end of the day on these matters.

« Last Edit: May 22, 2013, 07:34:39 PM by hepcat »

Logged

Warning: You will see my penis. -Brian

Just remember: once a user figures out gluten noting them they're allowed to make fun of you. - Ceekay speaking in tongues.

Played about 30 minutes so far. This game is right up my alley. It feels like Titan Quest but with a Gothic setting. It doesn't do anything revolutionary, but what it does do it does pretty dang well. Two thumbs up!

Created a character named, of course, Solomon Kane. I'll try MP later if anyone's around. Might be tomorrow though by the time I get back to it.

Logged

Warning: You will see my penis. -Brian

Just remember: once a user figures out gluten noting them they're allowed to make fun of you. - Ceekay speaking in tongues.

Couple of folks asked me what I thought about this - short answer, it's a steal!!!

I was leery when I saw it was a bargain priced ARPG, as I've tried plenty that cost more that have been a quick bust. This one, so far, has been great. As Hepcat said, it has a very strong Titan Quest feel to it. I hate to say that the look/feel of the game is surprisingly more appealing than Grim Dawn (yes I realize GD is only in Alpha, but given that it's from the makers of TQ it's a bit shocking to see this game already released and in better form than GD). And unlike Diablo 3, it captures a lot of the "essence" of the character building/experimentation that D3 lacked. While there aren't separate classes, as a single player experience, there are enough trees and skills and specializations to mess with, plus attribute points and interesting loot (right from the getgo), that the character pretty much feels immediately personalized. I found myself pausing quite a bit to think about how I wanted to spend my points and mold my character to a particular playstyle. The loot system is fairly standard fare, but drops seem to get into the good/useful quality quite quickly instead of making you wait the way many of these games like to do.

The best feature in the game, though, is the "pet." In this case it's in the form of Katarina, a ghost who essentially takes the Torchlight pet approach one step further. You can designate a number of AI choices such as defend/attack, ranged or melee, plus customize her gear and attributes and skills. You can set her to pick up items at your discretion in a very simple checklist fashion (I have her picking up gold, normal loot and potions). And yes, she will sell your crap just like in TL. This is the best "pet" implementation I've seen in an ARPG to date in terms of usefulness and the amount of customization. She also has OK voice acting and is apparently part of the storyline as well.

The graphics look fantastic, and the voice acting ranges from funny/bad to decent. The main character is pretty good all in all, and it's surprising just how much voice there is given it's priced as a budget game.

Of course it could all fall apart later but first impressions are really solid, and this is coming from someone who's pretty picky about their ARPGs.

Hopefully, I'll get some game time in later today or this weekend. However, the Shadows expansion for Distant Worlds was just released a little bit ago so I expect to be roaming the spaceways as a dirty pirate for most of memorial day weekend.

Doesn't mean I like Van Helsing any less...just means...well...pirate, people...pirate!

Logged

Warning: You will see my penis. -Brian

Just remember: once a user figures out gluten noting them they're allowed to make fun of you. - Ceekay speaking in tongues.

Well, three hours in and I agree pretty much with what Rittchard said.Its is a really good game for the price.Does feel a lot like Titan Quest, which is a good thing, some Torchlight, but more serious, and maybe a nod to Arcanum of Steam Works and Magic Obscura.

It has a zoom in feature which I really like, there is no rotate feature but I can live with that. The graphics are the reason for the big gigabyte footprint,but result in a really nice world to play in.I Like the story and the quirkiness of the characters, the Gothic setting, the old firearms, all handled really well. Lots of loot and the ability to craft your character anyway you want.Katarina is endearing in the way the floating skull was in Planescape Torment.

For me in a nutshell, it looks good, plays well, feels different and is a lot of fun.

My big problem is that I am level 5 and I haven't spent a single skill point yet.

I can't decide if I want to go melee, ranged, or magic. I'll sit down tonight and go slowly through the skill trees. I may end up setting Katarina for ranged and play Van Helsing as melee for the first run, but the other skills are very tempting, too.

Logged

Xbox Live: SukaroPSN: Suroka

Until I die I'll sing these songs on the shores of BabylonStill looking for a home in a world where I belong~Switchfoot

Has anyone played this co-op yet? I'm interested in getting copies for my son and I, but we're only interested in playing it co-op. One question I have, is whether you have to do a co-op connect through the publishers servers or whether you can do a direct/LAN connect?

Has anyone played this co-op yet? I'm interested in getting copies for my son and I, but we're only interested in playing it co-op. One question I have, is whether you have to do a co-op connect through the publishers servers or whether you can do a direct/LAN connect?

The Steam forums say that co-op is broke right now. Either you have lag, get disconnected after a couple minutes or can have your character deleted outright. The devs say they are working on it.

Has anyone played this co-op yet? I'm interested in getting copies for my son and I, but we're only interested in playing it co-op. One question I have, is whether you have to do a co-op connect through the publishers servers or whether you can do a direct/LAN connect?

The Steam forums say that co-op is broke right now. Either you have lag, get disconnected after a couple minutes or can have your character deleted outright. The devs say they are working on it.

Oh bummer, I was looking forward to playing it this weekend. Oh well, guess we'll go with a co-op play through of System Shock 2, which is a game my son has never played.

According to the devs, a new patch is out which supposedly fixes many of the multiplayer issues.

Nope - I checked the forums and as of today there's still people having problems with mutliplay. According to the comments by the forum moderator in this thread, the dev team is still working on a new patch to fix it.

According to the devs, a new patch is out which supposedly fixes many of the multiplayer issues.

Nope - I checked the forums and as of today there's still people having problems with mutliplay. According to the comments by the forum moderator in this thread, the dev team is still working on a new patch to fix it.

They did, however, release a patch with fixes but they have also acknowledged that "the multiplayer game still has some issues".

Spoiler for Release notes:

Major changes include:

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing v1.0.01

Known issues:- The multiplayer game still has some issues. Please use it with a character created for the multiplayer only because data loss may occur sometimes.

Balance changes:- The Blood Rabbit is a lot stronger now.- The monsters in the Sewers around the Secret Lair are weaker now.- The final wave of attackers in the Siege of the Secret Lair has been reduced in numbers.- The price of some epic items has been modified.- The shooting range of the Dreadknechts has been decreased

Fixed bugs:- Multiplayer Fixed an issue at "Online character" saving. A lot of crash/disconnect issues have been fixed. The ping column has been removed from the game list.

- Fixed an issue with the audio volumes.- Fixed an issue with Veteran Domovoys AI.- Fixed an issue with the scrollbar in the Ink Gate window.- The final boss will talk your head off - like he should do.- The outro movie is played when the final boss has collapsed - not when he gets the killing blow.- You could only select from the first 10 skills you've learned even though there are 11 active skills. This has been fixed.- Fixed crash on the Artifact Forge window.- Fixed an issue with conversations in different resolutions.- Localisation issues have been fixed in the German, Spanish, Hungarian and Portuguese language versions.- Cloak appears properly on Van Helsing when the equipped item is changed.- The area of the bridge detonation cutscene has been adjusted (it could be avoided)- Fixed a bug with the customize button. (It didn't save your settings if you used online character.)

After logging onto Steam for the first time in months, I ran into this pleasant surprise.

Well, pleasant until I got to the Wormrider. Um. Uh. I don't know how to beat it. The electrical stuff only provided a stun on my first visit, for some reason. I'm on normal. On the first visit I could get it down to maybe 50% health, but even with 100 health potions i just couldn't survive all the ... um... enemies....

I don't think my meat and potatoes skill choices (just basic melee strike and cleave, and the gun stuff with the explosives skill later, and some passives) is working too well on that particular level. Uh never mind, just figured it out.

As far as multiplayer goes, it's an indy game, and I've played a lot of indy games on Steam that have MP issues. Then again, I've played a game called Diablo 3 by a monolithic entity called Blizzard and their MP game was ****ed up for a year. Maybe it still is, I couldn't get my mobile authenticator to work anymore, which is how I ended up playing this all this afternoon. Irony!

At least with this game, when my cable modem crapped out for a while, it still let me play -- and when I got the connection working again, aside from a brief pause when Steam reconnected, all was OK. I'm using an "online character" but playing single player, and it's been very stable, fwiw.

I do have to say the "powerups" system, while refreshing, took me a long time to find any comfort with. Still to this point I just set up a combo and frantically smash my spacebar during combat. Probably there's a more eloquent way to play but it's worked for me.

Put in a couple hours this morning, and I'm alternately very impressed and very annoyed. Let's start with the good. The production values are really slick (especially for a budget titles), most of the VO work is well done and often genuinely funny, and they've done some very unique things with the companion. The music is suitably epic, and the setting is very unique and interesting.

They would do well to tone down the loot drops somewhat. It honestly feels like I'm swapping out my equipment after 3 steps because every. single. monster drops a rare item. I know these games are all about the loot, but this one seems to have gone a bit overboard in that regard.

I'm hoping someone can explain the "rage meter" concept to me? I haven't been able to wrap my brain around that one at all. I'm playing a melee build, and each of my main attacks (right and left mouse buttons) has 3 additional smaller slots above them. I know these are secondary attacks which are supposed to be triggered by hitting the space bat when there is rage available in the yellow meter, but I can't for the life of me figure out how they're supposed to work. Sometimes they'll have a red number in them, other times they'll immediately disappear...and none of them really seem to make much of a difference. I also can't make any sense of how rage actually accumulates. I'll be swinging away in the middle of a massive mob taking down baddies left and right, yet the yellow meter barely moves. Other times I'll take one or two random hits, and the meter briefly spike all the way to the top, then just as quickly disappear.

They would do well to tone down the loot drops somewhat. It honestly feels like I'm swapping out my equipment after 3 steps because every. single. monster drops a rare item. I know these games are all about the loot, but this one seems to have gone a bit overboard in that regard.

Thatís a major problem I had with Torchlight 2. If you played both how would you say they compare?

They would do well to tone down the loot drops somewhat. It honestly feels like I'm swapping out my equipment after 3 steps because every. single. monster drops a rare item. I know these games are all about the loot, but this one seems to have gone a bit overboard in that regard.

Thatís a major problem I had with Torchlight 2. If you played both how would you say they compare?

About the same. Van Helsing might be a touch worse, but it's pretty close. It's one of the reasons I didn't really care for Torchlight 2 either...a near-constant stream of loot overload.

I picked this up today after losing a battle of willpower and so far after maybe 4 hours I'm enjoying it. As others have mentioned the production quality in graphics, voice overs and music is quite good for a budget game.

As for the loot, I personally don't find it all that overwhelming. Most of the time the things I'm picking aren't any better than what I already have. I did happen to immediately pick the perk that gave me a second inventory page, but for the first couple hours I never even used it.

I really like the concept of doing both ranged and melee combat, and the quick switching between a gun and sword.

However, my biggest complaint is that the melee combat is just not very satisfying. The swings are slow and don't seem to have much impact, and the lengthy enemy death animations don't help much.

If you're swamped by loot (there's no law says you have to pick everything up), just set Katarina's behavior to pick up most of the stuff, and send her off to sell now and then. I really haven't found it a bother. If one has to horde everything, the Collector's perk is helpful though I prefer things that keep me alive.

I'm at L19-20 and the game's more of a blast at that point. The enemy AI routines become more varied (that is, a few things don't just make a beeline straight for you). I like it, but it might bring back bad memories of Zunis running away and being tough to target.

Combat's a bit more satisfying once you're further up the skill trees and have added some of those little modifier things in the skill tree. Environs become extremely expansive too, and some opportunities for bottlenecking come up here and there.

I think if they do a follow up game (supposedly they plan two), they might consider adding a bit more variety to combat animations. In a couple cases, I'd get a different skill, and it didn't really appear to animate differently than the skill before.

But yeah if one is just tired of action RPGs in general (judging by most action RPGs' official forums, one would think the only purpose of such game is to make people complain 24/7), I wouldn't recommend this, not even at $15. So far I've found it a real gem.

I gotta say the Defend the Lair stuff, around early L20s, is unbelievably fun and insane. And bloody.

If they can tidy up the co-op MP issues, an entire game built around it (maybe a series of lairs of different layouts that you defend) would appeal to me.

The trap variety is fun there. It's just I haven't quite mastered what traps work quickly and what ones (like the springboard one, or the one that slurps one monster into a gaping whole) work slowly but effectively. I got through the 3 waves OK although several monsters got past me and my traps.